Helen Thomas: 92 Years of Dhimmitude

Veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas passed away last week at the age ninety-two. The most noticeable aspect of her media persona was her life-long support for Islamic terrorists. She openly supported the Shiite terror group Hezbollah, even proclaiming to a CNN cameraman: "Thank God for Hezbollah" and said that Israeli Jews "should go back to Poland or Germany" (Imagine the howling outcry if a journalist dared to suggest that Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian Muslims "go back to Arabia").

What's ironic in light of her vehemently pro-Muslim views is that Helen Thomas is the descendant of Orthodox Christian immigrants from Lebanon, a community that was oppressed and victimized by Arab Muslims for hundreds of years. One thing is to criticize Israel's behavior in Lebanon, which is often brutal and unwarranted. Another thing is to genuflect before the likes of Hezbollah and Hamas, whose followers massacred and abused Christians. I wonder if Ms. Thomas was aware of the number of churches desecrated, priests murdered, and Christian women raped by her beloved Palestinians and Shiites.

Unfortunately, many Lebanese Christians adopt not only the political positions of their conquerors, but even their identity. It is well known that Lebanese Christians: Maronite, Melkite, and Orthodox, are not Arabs. Rather, they are the descendants of Phoenician and Syriac natives displaced by the Arab conquerors. Yet, in this country, I've met numerous Lebanese and Syrian Christians who insist they're "Arabs" and parrot the dumbest lines of Arab Muslim propaganda. The fact that this tragic self-denial persists several generations after their families left the Middle East, shows the power of dhimmitude and underlines its tragedy.